The WCD CPP Project

The Government of Pakistan (GoP) wishes to cause a public debate on the WCD report in Pakistan with a view to generate considered recommendations for policy reforms. Considering IUCN involvement in the setting up of the WCD itself and the organisation’s extensive work in Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan has asked IUCN to help in organising the debate and facilitating the generation of recommendations in partnership between IUCN and the Ministry of Environment.

Purpose of the consultative process

The primary goal of the WCD-CPP is to ensure that future water and energy development in Pakistan with respect to large dams is economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. The consultative process is one of the first steps towards realization of this goal.

The purpose of the initiative is to generate recommendations for policy reforms by the Government of Pakistan through the enhancement of understanding of the WCD Report and its implication for public policy in Pakistan, and by contributing the formulation of a shared view around the current (socio-economic and environmental) issues related to water conservation in general and large dams in particular.

Approach employed to implement the project

A two pronged approach is envisaged One strand of the approach is essentially of holding sub-national and community based workshops, and one national workshop for the relevant top decision-makers. The basic idea of disseminating the report in Pakistan is to assist in enhancing awareness amongst the key stakeholders of the findings and recommendations of the report within the context of the specific political, socio- economic and environmental situation of Pakistan.

The other strand will be to cause a debate on the subject in press. The debate in media will be monitored to distil the learning from it.

To this end, it is envisaged to (a) translate and disseminate a summary of the WCD report in Urdu; (b) organise moderated discussions after each workshop for select NGOs, journalists and a press briefing in each city where the workshop is held; and (c) put the proceedings of the workshops and final policy recommendations on a web page specifically designed for this purpose.

The process and outcome of the project will be documented, which will include recommendation for policy reforms. Beside its submission to the Government, these documents will be made accessible to the public via the Internet

Expected outputs of the consultative process

The key outputs of the process are envisaged to be translations of WCD documents in Urdu, reports of the proceedings of the seven workshops and two community-based PRAs, press releases, a web page dedicated to the project, a water portal, and policy recommendations to GoP.

For more information - http://wcdcpp.iucnp.org/

Other projects: BP - ERNP - MACP - PEP - PSNP - SP - SPCS - WCD - SDNP